RYANAIR STAFF LIVING in Swords say that they feel “unsafe” and “unwelcome” following an arson attack that saw bins set alight and pushed in front of the doors of seven houses where workers for the airline live.
The incident happened in the late hours of Tuesday morning. Gardaí responded to a report of a number of incidents of criminal damage in the Fostertown area.
Local fire service personnel extinguished the fires and no injuries were reported, however this morning, the attack has left airline staff who rent houses in the area shaken.
“We don’t know if the issue here was a political one with the airline, or if it was because we are workers from other countries, and maybe some people believe it is just the Irish who should live here,” one Spanish man who works for Ryanair and lives nearby said today.
“We work here, we pay taxes, and many Irish people work in Spain or visit there for holidays, so this is hard to understand,” he added.
The man, who has been living in Ireland for a year now, said that the incident has made him feel “unwelcome” in Ireland.
Two 21-year-olds from Spain who work as cabin crew for Ryanair woke up to the sounds of shouts and screams at 3am last night – they live in between two of the houses where bin liners were set alight, and pushed up against the front of the neighbouring properties.
“We didn’t know that there were bins on fire, when we came down we thought the houses were on fire themselves, it was terrifying,” one of the women said.
She added that airline staff living in the Boroimhe area of Swords are now considering installing CCTV and other protections in an effort to feel safer.
“My mum is going crazy about me staying here after this, we don’t know if whoever did this could come back, I am really scared,” her co-worker said.
She added that this is her first time living abroad.
Ryanair itself has condemned the “attack”.
A spokesperson said that those impacted work as Inflight staff, engineers and in Ryanair’s head office.
They added that both Irish and “EU employees” live in the area.
Workmen are on site repairing doors that were burned and damaged in the course of the incident today.